Imagine losing your job, being rejected by friends, or having your neighbours cross the road when they see you – just because you’d been diagnosed with an illness.

Sadly, these are the experiences of many people who have schizophrenia, one of the most misunderstood and stigmatised illnesses in the UK.

Myths
about the condition still persist, like that it makes people violent, or that
it means having a split personality. Recent media stories, like The Sun’s
misleading cover story about ‘mental patient’ murders, or Asda and Tesco’s
mental illness themed Halloween costumes, show how entrenched this stigma still is.

It’s
no surprise then many people affected by schizophrenia find it difficult to
tell others about their illness. In a new YouGov poll commissioned by my
organisation Rethink Mental Illness,
more than three quarters of people in Britain said they wouldn’t tell their
neighbours if they were diagnosed with schizophrenia. Only 35 percent would
tell their boss, and less than a third would be open with work colleagues.

The
experiences of David Strange, one of our supporters, demonstrate why people
with schizophrenia can be reluctant to reveal their diagnosis.

David
is a 39 year old wine and food connoisseur who lives in Winchester. But he was
working as a junior fellow at a university when he was first developed paranoid
schizophrenia 14 years ago. He started having horrible hallucinations, became
extremely paranoid, and ended up being admitted to a secure hospital.

When
he felt well enough to return to work, David had no qualms about telling his
colleagues where he’d been for the previous three months.

But
the reaction of his employers was swift and brutal. David was fired
immediately, turfed out of his college accommodation, and barred from his
university email and online profile. He was given no explanation whatsoever.

Unfortunately,
Rethink's new report published today shows that David’s case is far
from unique. Would You Tell? explores people’s experiences of telling others that they
have schizophrenia or psychosis, and highlights two main types of stigma
that people often face.

The
first, as in David’s case, is in the workplace. The report features shocking
stories of people being hounded out of jobs, or sacked on the spot, when their
employers found about their illness. Their experiences reflect that fact that
only eight percent of people in England with schizophrenia are currently in work.

The
source of the second type of stigma is perhaps more surprising: mental health
professionals. A number of people in the report describe being told by
psychiatrists or nurses that they would never work again, or be able to have
children – just because of their diagnosis.

Indeed,
a recent evaluation of the Time to Change campaign, which
we run with Mind, shows that attitudes to mental illness among health
professionals haven’t shifted in line those of friends and relatives, which are
improving.

This
has to change. Schizophrenia shouldn’t feel like a life sentence, and people
can recover to live fulfilling lives. In fact, around half of all people
diagnosed with schizophrenia recover after one or two episodes.

But
when people feel unable to talk openly about their condition because of the
stigma that surrounds it, they are much less likely to get the support they
need to get better.

That’s
why we’ve launched the first ever Schizophrenia Awareness Week (11-17
November).
By dedicating a time each year to sharing understanding about the illness, we
hope to change the conversation about schizophrenia in
workplaces, hospitals and pubs across the country.

We want the public to know about the reality behind the headlines – that
people with schizophrenia often get very poor care, but that with the right
treatment it is possible to recover and live a fulfilling life.

But more than anything else, we want to break down the ignorance and
myths around the condition, so that people with schizophrenia can reach out to
others without fear of being shunned or ostracised.

It could be the difference between someone getting the support
they need to recover, or having to battle schizophrenia alone. As David Strange
says: “There’s nothing for me to be ashamed of – having paranoid schizophrenia
doesn’t make me a bad person.”

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